Mideast Initiative Called Threat to GCC Unity Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> User-Agent: eGroups-EW/0.82 X-Mailer: Yahoo Groups Message Poster X-Originating-IP: 66.94.237.41 X-eGroups-Msg-Info: 1:12:0 X-Yahoo-Post-IP: 68.100.237.239 From: "David Bier" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Yahoo-Profile: bafsllc MIME-Version: 1.0 Mailing-List: list osint@yahoogroups.com; contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Delivered-To: mailing list osint@yahoogroups.com List-Id: <osint.yahoogroups.com> Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 16:57:13 -0000 Subject: [osint] Reply-To: osint@yahoogroups.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=3D738683&C=3Dmideast Posted 03/28/05 10:02 Mideast Initiative Called Threat to GCC Unity By RIAD KAHWAJI, RIYADH, Saudi Arabia U.S. and European efforts to negotiate bilateral pacts with Middle East states threaten the Gulf Cooperation Council's (GCC) unity and survival as a unified body, regional observers say. "Signing bilateral agreements that contradict with regional pacts will ultimately weaken the union and jeopardize the future of the GCC," said Anwar Eshki, the chairman of the Center for Middle East Strategic and Legal Studies, based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Many observers see these talks as part of Washington's attempt to implement the Greater Middle East Initiative, an effort to promote reform and democracy that was announced early last year by U.S. President George W. Bush and later adopted by the European Union and other international powers. "Not only would bilateral agreements between Arab gulf states and the U.S. weaken the GCC, they would also reduce the regional influence and prestige of large states like Saudi Arabia," said Abdulnabi Al-Ekry, a senior researcher at the Bahrain Center for Strategic Studies. The most controversial of these have been the Free Trade Zone Agreements (FTZAs), in which the United States and another country agree to lift tariffs and lower other barriers to trade and investment. Bahrain signed such an agreement in November, drawing a Saudi rebuke. But Riyadh has been ineffective at persuading other GCC nations, including Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, from moving toward their own accords with Washington. The UAE opened official talks in February, while Omani officials say they will sign a free-trade agreement in July. Eshki said GCC states should negotiate with Washington as a group. "There is no benefit whatsoever for the small gulf states in signing bilateral trade agreements with a large industrial country like the U.S. because they have nothing much to sell the American market while the U.S. can flood their markets with products," he said. The GCC, set up in 1984, has produced economic, defense, political and social pacts between the oil-rich Arab gulf states. NATO Agreements NATO has also opened talks about bilateral security pacts with GCC states, a goal outlined in the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) announced at the June 2004 NATO summit in Istanbul. NATO officials said the initiative seeks to promote cooperation in various areas =97 border security, defense reforms, intelligence sharing and fighting terrorism =97 with countries in the greater Middle East region, which extends from Mauritania in northwestern Africa to Afghanistan. NATO spokesman James Appathurai said in November that the alliance's secretary-general had seen strong interest from a few states. One month later, Kuwait became the first GCC state to sign the ICI, and NATO officials expect more to sign this year. NATO has a security pact, the Mediterranean Dialogue Group, with Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. These bilateral approaches are part of the effort to implement the Greater Middle East Initiative by pushing reform on three fronts, said U.S. Ambassador to NATO Richard Burns. "There is an economic initiative offered by the G-8 [eight major industrial states], a political initiative offered in the last joint EU-U.S. summit in Dublin and the security initiative offered under NATO's ICI," Burns said. Many regional officials and observers have the same qualms about the bilateral agreements as about the initiative itself. "Small gulf states will no longer need Saudi permission to undergo any internal reforms or make independent foreign policy decisions, and the same goes for small or poor Arab states around Egypt," said Walid Nuwaihed, a Bahrain-based political analyst. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, in frequent press interviews, has called the initiative a "dangerous American project" aimed at "destroying Arab nationality." =95 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->=20 Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for anyone who cares about public education! http://us.click.yahoo.com/_OLuKD/8WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~->=20 -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, discuss-o= [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use h= as not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a par= t of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSI= NT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the= included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of inte= lligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, tech= niques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligenc= e related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We= believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as = provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use t= his copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,= ' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml=20 Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ =20
